ABSTRACT:
Many widely prescribed medications can result in serious, drug-induced ocular side-effects. Some side-effects may be transient and reversible; others can cause serious and irreversible visual loss. Due to possible adverse ocular complications, it is necessary to be aware of all the medications our patients are taking and their possible ocular consequences. This is especially important because patients often do not associate ocular and visual problems with medications being taken for conditions not directly related to their eyes.
In most cases, management of ocular side-effects involves careful patient monitoring and/or consulting with the prescribing practitioner about adjusting the drug dosage or discontinuing the offending medication.
The purpose of this course is to review common systemic medications, their uses, and their ocular side-effects. Although there are many medications that have ocular sequelae, this course will focus on medications that have a high frequency of side-effects, those that produce severe ocular problems, and those that are the most commonly prescribed (as determined by the top 200 generic and legend pharmaceutical drugs prescribed in 2002).
By convention, drugs will be listed by generic name first, then the most common brand/proprietary names will be given. In addition, some drugs will be followed by a number in brackets representing where it ranks in a list of the most commonly prescribed 200 medications.